Why is it that enthusiasm for a candidate equals cult?

[Thickasabrick]

I keep reading or hearding the same meme....it's a cult, he/she is/is not "the one", they are like "zombies", etc. Why is it that for the first time in my adult life (I'm 53), when there is a strong movement toward a candidate it's labeled as something strange.

We should be rejoicing that the democrats have such exciting candidates and people are actually....participating. People are inspired and getting involved in something that's bigger than themselves (or shopping). Is the idea that we can witness a movement so widespread and monumental that we treat it as alien because it's not in our collective experience?

[Maddy McCall]

1. Only when the enthusiasm takes on a religious, messianic tone...

do I start comparing it to a cult.

And there have been some posts here with that tone.

[mkultra]

3. do you feel that JFK and MLK where cults?

[rug]

13. Do you feel that Obama is JFK or MLK?

[mkultra]

21. i do not. They where far more.

They had much greater appeal and adoration and i don't consider them cults either. Just moral movements.

[11 Bravo]

22. I was fortunate enough to hear each of them speak.

I failed to note a plethora of swooning females on either occasion.

[DarienComp]

2. Because the candidate in question isn't Hillary Clinton.

[Kittycat]

4. Jealous because their candidate couldn't excite a puppy with a new bone

[Flabbergasted]

5. Classic: "Attack your opponents strengths." Just politics as usual.

[blogslut]

6. Because they have to denigrate it

American history is full of populist movements that were killed by divisive measures. In the pre-civil war era, poor white farmers sympathized with slaves and as a collective, acted against rich plantation owners. The remedy? Turn those poor white farmers into slave bosses and pay them just enough to shut them up. Bingo, the birth of the American middle class.

[Muttocracy]

7. because support for the other candidate is easier to dismiss.

Clinton supporters must all be sexist old women; Obama supporters are naive young cheerleaders.

What this leaves out is the large group of people who didn't initially want either of them and have come to have a preference for one or the other after losing our preferred candidates, or the choices being narrowed before even coming to a preference.

This would seem to be even more true of DU than the world out there given the Kucinich and Edward support here.

[TLM]

8. Exactly.... dems should be excited as hell....

to again have a candidate in the JFK tradition who actually excites people... makes them feel hopeful and inspired.


Bill Clinton knew this, and did it successfully to some degree as the man from hope.

But Hillary can't inspire nearly as well as Bill could. Her cynical triangulation style of politics isn't meant to inspire, it is meant to slip by with 50% plus 1 vote. So she's getting trounced by Obama... she miscalculated.

[Thickasabrick]

25. Thank you - I'm hoping that after the smoke clears and we have

a nom, people will start to appreciate this for the incredible moment in history that it is.

[QC]

9. This post should answer your question.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5408412&mesg_id=5408412

[Sinistrous]

10. One off-the-wall poster (102 posts) means that all admirers are looney toons.

Real tight logic you're using there QC.

:puke:

Sinistrous

[QC]

11. You don't find that post creepy? n/t

[Forkboy]

16. Sounds like someone trying to get the very reaction you're giving.

:shrug:

[QC]

17. I dunno. I've been seeing similar sentiments expressed here for months,

if not quite so floridly. Every year there's a candidate who seems to inspire a creepy level of devotion among some of his followers. Last time it was Dean, and I supported Dean but still found his moonies around here a little weird.

On edit: Check this out: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=5399053

[Forkboy]

18. I don't see it that much from either side.

There's always a handful of supporters for everyone that seem to have way too much emotional investment in their choice, and this year is no different. But lets be fair too. There's a fine line between enthusiastic support and creepy support, and our own biases help color what we see, oftentimes drawing that line unfairly. If you were an Obama supporter you'd draw that line past where you stand as a non-supporter, allowing for your own enthusiasm. Same for me if I preferred Hillary.

The cult stuff is offensive regardless of which direction it's aimed in (and I've seen it go both ways here) because it tries to diminish genuine excitement for a candidate, reducing it to an imagined mental instability that doesn't exist. And which really helps none of us in the long run, as any Dem who attracts new people to our party is good for us. 99% of the people who call the other side Kool Aid drinkers look like Kool Aid drinkers themselves to those same people. And they're both wrong.

The vast majority of each candidate's supporters are perfectly normal people who are excited for their candidate. Nothing more, nothing less.

[QC]

19. I think the cult things refers to the cult of personality, not child sacrifice and the like,

and that does seem a valid observation about some people, namely the ones who change their own positions based on what Dear Leader says. After a point it really does come to seem that everything is about Dear Leader, not progressive positions or winning an election.

[Forkboy]

20. Yes, that exists, for sure.

One thing that disappoints me in every election are the people who I know have espoused some true progressive/Dem/liberal values in the past who toss them out as needed to keep believing in their choice. But that's something I've seen for a couple of decades now, and I suspect we'll keep seeing for decades more, and overall that number is usually a small, though vocal, group of supporters.

I guess I'm too cynical as I've never felt any real emotion over any candidate, but that makes it a lot easier to stay true to myself through all this stuff. I can imagine I'd be pretty insufferable if I was that invested in any candidate, as I'm pretty bad already. :)

[walldude]

23. Sorry but that's not true, it may have started out that way

but very few Hillary supporters are using the term to mean COP. They are throwing the word Messiah around and using Kool-Aid and Cult like we are followers of Jim Jones. Fact is people are choosing Obama freely and of their own free will. If my choosing a candidate because I believe he will represent my interests better than another makes me a cult follower than that's what we all are.

[Maddy McCall]

12. Yep, that one sealed the cult thing for me.

That post is DISTURBING.

[QC]

14. I think Pill Lady must have been late making her rounds this afternoon. n/t

[Greyskye]

27. "sealed the cult thing"?

You've been beating the cult meme for months, and a post from yesterday "sealed the cult thing" for you? :eyes: Whatever.

[Thickasabrick]

26. Was that post a joke?

[blonndee]

15. Jealousy that their candidate does not have the charisma

and can't rally the grassroots. Suspicion of something "other" or different. Resentment that others feel hopeful, energized, and optimistic and they do not. IMO.

[Orsino]

24. It's enthusiasm when it's for *my* candidate...

...and it's a cult when it's for yours. :7

[crankychatter]

28. The Definition of a "Cult"

The church down the street that believes differently than MY church.

[SeattleGirl]

29. I think that part of is is that the Bush pResidency has been so

horrid that some people are suspicious of someone (anyone) who comes along and can ignite people the way Obama does.